Peru: street vendors return to the streets of Lima despite confinement

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Because of the coronavirus control measures, street vendors had disappeared from the streets of the capital of Peru since mid-March. But despite the extension of confinement until June 30, more and more of them are returning to the city, out of necessity.

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From our correspondent in Lima,  Wyloën Munhoz- Boillot

Their return worries the inhabitants and the authorities. Despite the containment decreed to fight the global pandemic of Covid-19 , Peruvian street vendors have been coming by the hundreds, for several days, to settle in an avenue of a popular district of Lima, the capital of Peru , to sell all kinds of merchandise.

“  I was a self-employed seamstress. But as the shopping mall where I work has closed, now I sell on the street, until it reopens,  "says in the middle of the masked crowd Gissela, who has spread on the sidewalk a plastic sheet on which she has protective coveralls in fabric.

Like her, most of the street vendors are self-employed and informal workers who make a living from day to day. To survive, they have no choice but to resume their activity on the street .

"  They will contaminate everything  "

The Peruvian government had however promised a subsidy of 760 soles (around 195 euros) for the most vulnerable, or two thirds of the country's minimum wage. However, many informal workers have still not touched anything because most of them do not have a bank account and are not registered in any official register.

Their return worries the neighborhood, which fears an increase in contamination. "  They are going to contaminate the whole area when there are vulnerable people who live here : pregnant women, elderly people ... And they all congregate here. We are not going to let them do it,  ”explains a resident annoyed by their presence.

Thursday, June 11, clashes broke out between street vendors and residents of the neighborhood came to hunt them with a stick. The next day, the police violently expelled them from the center of Lima. To reduce tensions and avoid the risk of contagion, the municipality announced the opening of stadiums and parks to relocate part of them.

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• Peru
• Coronavirus
• Confinement

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